LA PIETRA DEL PARAGONE (The Touchstone) concerns the Count Asdrubale who is wealthy and therefore of great interest to many women – notably Aspasia, Fulvia, and Clarice. Only Clarice, however, loves him for something other than his riches. There are also male hangers-on: the corrupt journalist Macrobio, the poetaster Pacuvio, and Giocondo, who is Asdrubale's true friend, but who has his own eyes on Clarice. To test his friends and would-be fiancées, Asdrubale pretends that he has been bankrupted. Sure enough, only Clarice and Giocondo stand by him, and when his fortune is "miraculously" saved, the three have the last laugh on everyone else... or do they? This production is set in what looks like the early 1960s. But the real innovation is the use of blue screen technology: using tiny cameras and sets, along gigantic screens hanging over the stage, a kind of video mixing makes the singers appear to inhabit any number of fanciful settings and perform a myriad of improbable actions.
Sonia Prina
as La marquesa Clarice
Jennifer Holloway
as La baronessa Aspasia
Laura Giordano
as Donna Fulvia
François Lis
as Il conte Asdrubale
José Manuel Zapata
as Il cavalier Giocondo
Joan Martín-Royo
as Macrobio
Christian Senn
as Pacuvio
Filippo Polinelli
as Fabrizio
Jean-Christophe Spinosi
as Self - Conductor
Gioacchino Rossini
as Self - Composer
